NEWS

‘Simplicity is everything’. Bach – Mozart – Chopin

From 1 August to 15 September 2017 at the Fryderyk Chopin Museum, there will be a special show of the manuscript of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Quartet in G minorK. 478. This is an extraordinarily rare opportunity to see a musical autograph of the genius from Salzburg with one’s own eyes. The presentation of the manuscript has become a pretext to talk about the significance of the Viennese Classicist’s music in the œuvre of Fryderyk Chopin.

Mozart’s manuscript presented in the exhibition is enchanting in its transparency and in the confidence of the handwriting. Unlike Chopin’s autographs, which change versions of a work multiple times, as is attested by the numerous deletions visible especially in his working manuscripts, Mozart’s score is characterized by an almost complete lack of corrections. Many Romantic composers, including Chopin, viewed Mozart as a peerless model of refined simplicity.

As part of the special show, we shall also take a look at other extraordinary objects from the collections of the Fryderyk Chopin Museum that illustrate the Polish composer’s diverse connections with the Classical tradition. Chopin knew the works of the great masters – including Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – since childhood, which had an enormous influence on the shaping of his creative personality, as well as – in particular – an effect on his individual musical language. At the exhibition, you will be able to see, among other items, the original manuscript of the Variations in B-flat majorOp. 2, the theme of which was drawn from Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni; sketches for Chopin’s unfinished Piano Method; and the first published edition of Chopin’s 24 PreludesOp. 28, inspired by Bach’s monumental work – Das Wohltemperierte Klavier. Aside from musical objects, we shall also find other memorabilia at the exhibition that attest to Chopin’s attachment to the music of the great Classicists. One of them is an invitation to his funeral, at which – according to the composer’s wishes – Mozart’s Requiem was performed.

The exhibition tells about the influence of the Classical tradition not only on Chopin’s works, but also on his aesthetic choices and image. Chopin’s œuvre was almost always characterized by moderation and discipline – as another Romantic, Eugène Delacroix, said: ‘[Chopin] reminds one of Mozart more than anyone else.’

The honorary patron of the special exhibition is the Austrian Cultural Forum.